7 Toughest Days (2023-…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Kyrgyzstan - full transcript
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(wind gusting)
(unsettling music)
(labored breathing)
DWAYNE:
Nice and slow. That's it.
My hands are nearly frozen.
Everything's ice. (grunts)
I've been dropped in Kyrgyzstan,
one of the highest countries in the world,
94 percent of it mountains,
some over 20,000 feet.
9,000 feet above sea level,
I'm hanging off a frozen waterfall
trying to get onto a glacier.
(crunching, cracking)
Some snow coming down.
It's all soft snow. Yeah,
it could come down.
(Rob grunts)
DWAYNE: Easy.
-You alright?
-ROB: Yeah.
DWAYNE: This terrain is so tough,
you've got to go at it as a team.
-Good.
-My cameraman is my lifeline, and I'm his.
Dig in with your crampons.
(heavy breathing, continuous)
I'm challenging myself for one week
in the glacial peaks of Kyrgyzstan.
(dramatic music)
(groans)
Just lost half my traction.
It's not looking good.
(tense music)
(theme music)
I'm Dwayne Fields,
explorer and adventurer.
(whoops)
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!
-In the wilderness is where I come alive.
-Ooh, viper!
-It's my true calling.
-Whoa!
In 2010, I became the first Black
British man to trek to the North Pole.
Progress is that way.
I love to push myself to the limit.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, that's a drop!
Now I'm challenging myself
to survive a week
in some of the harshest
environments on Earth…
Oh, man, this is gonna be intense.
…using all my skill,
determination, and will to survive.
-That's why I'm here in Kyrgyzstan…
-Here we go.
…in the dead of winter.
This is gonna be my Seven Toughest Days.
(climactic music)
(wind whistles)
This is so much harder with one crampon.
(huffs) I'm not getting any grip!
Just not getting any grip.
I can see the crampon. Fat lot of
good it's doing me down there.
Ah, mercifully a little bit
of rock will give me some grip.
We need to get off this mountain.
We've got a long way to go.
(dramatic music)
Kyrgyzstan lies to the south of
Kazakhstan and west of China.
I'm in the Tien Shan Mountains,
the largest range in Central Asia.
I've got just seven days to get to a nomad
camp where I've arranged a ride out
before they all leave.
Kyrgyzstan is one of the
coldest countries on Earth.
The average temperature is 37 degrees.
Four percent of the country lies under
permanent snow and glaciers.
I'm here in the dead of winter.
The weather gets so extreme, even
the local nomad population gets out,
and heads for more sheltered ground.
We're now on the glacier,
a massive unstable sea of ice
riddled with deep, treacherous crevasses.
I know there's a mountain hut around here.
If I can find it, I can shelter
in there out of the elements.
Then I'm going to climb
a 10,000-foot peak,
search for an abandoned mining settlement
before hitching a ride back to safety,
all in seven days.
This glacier is scarred with
crevasses. It's so treacherous.
This is only a small one, but they can
get big enough to swallow a house.
And that's what makes them
dangerous, the snow covers them.
If you survive a fall in, rescue is
really difficult. They are deadly.
So keep a lookout.
I'm going to try heading over
to this side at the talus field.
All this rock debris at the side of
the glacier should be frozen solid.
(heavy breathing, grunting)
The snow is covering all the hazards.
This is hell.
Any step could be a twisted ankle,
which doesn't sound like much,
but out here, that's a big deal.
If I go down, I don't know how long it
could take for rescue to reach me.
(grunts)
The snow covers so much, look at that.
It's so deep, you can't
ever find a decent footing.
You just don't know
what you're stepping into.
As a polar explorer, I know this
type of environment and its risks.
I'm comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Kyrgyzstan is my kind of world.
It's extreme and inspiring.
There are more than 100
unclimbed peaks here.
Nature's chaos is just what it is.
You don't know what's gonna
happen in ten minutes' time,
and I think that's what makes life
worth living. The risk is part of the fun.
With the wind coming in…
(tense music)
…we need to get
off this mountain ASAP.
I feel the temperature dropping
because of the windchill factor now.
See, that to me looks like a storm.
Do you see how fast they come in?
The visibility is just going to zero.
We've got that cloud coming in.
We don't want to get caught in that.
I'm hopeful that maybe on the other side,
we'll get some dry glaciers so we can
walk on, make life a little bit easier.
Get us out of here that much quicker.
(heavy breathing)
(wind gusting)
Whoa, this wind's nuts. I've gone 20
yards further, and it's clear again.
I'm concerned because
there's a crack along there,
and I don't know when it widens or not.
I'm gonna have to change these crampons.
Whoa, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!
A massive crevasse along here. Step back.
(dramatic music)
Come back. Step back.
That's like a 100-foot drop.
I don't know if we're
overhanging. Step back.
The snow underfoot could just give way.
Look at that. You can't even see
the mountains up there anymore.
In a few minutes,
we're gonna be overwhelmed.
If we stay up here,
we might freeze to death.
Down there, it's out of the wind
and a few degrees warmer.
But the ice could be unstable.
It might collapse, burying us.
Visibility's gonna drop to zero.
That's where we're sleeping tonight.
We need to get the ropes
rigged and get down in there
where it's gonna be a lot
safer than it is up here.
We're less exposed down there.
We haven't got any time. Let's get moving.
(action music)
Looking for a really good flat spot.
No bubbles, no clear cracks,
and I'll use one of these ice screws.
This is what I'm gonna trust our lives on.
(grunts)
It's designed to hold
2,200 pounds of force.
The wind's picking up.
I've done a lot of rope work on my
expeditions, but I'm not gonna lie,
I'm feeling a bit scared at this point.
A crevasse is the kind of thing you could
fall down into and nobody will ever know.
(grunts)
(adventurous music)
It's good to get out of that storm.
(otherworldly music)
(heavy breathing)
It feels like another world down here.
It's like 10 to 15 stories deep.
It's wild to think this crevasse was
formed because the ice is moving.
Deep below me, the glacier is crawling
along at probably a foot and a half a day.
But different parts of the glacier
are moving at different speeds,
stressing the ice.
These huge forces cause the ice to crack
open, forming massive gaps, like canyons.
Hopefully, it'll open up. I think this
is where we're gonna be sleeping.
(yells) It's pitch-black in here!
(wind howls)
Do you know, as nice as it is to
get out of that weather up top,
it's bittersweet. We're losing
half a day sat down here.
We're not gonna get out of
here before morning, at best.
At least we've got plenty of water.
This takes me back to cold
weather survival training
high up in the mountains.
Sitting down on a freezing cold
sub-zero, minus-20 night just like this,
trying to stave off
frostbite and hypothermia.
I can hear the ice shifting.
I hope that doesn't cause a collapse.
I gave myself seven days for this.
Sitting here on a freezing
cold night like this,
it's just come to mind
that it's seven nights as well.
(dramatic music)
(otherworldly music)
Storm's passed. Got to get
out of here, find that hut.
And also, we need to warm up.
(grunts)
(chuckles) I tell you what,
I've slept in better places.
Okay. Ah, oh, my fingers are freezing.
(dramatic music)
It's gonna be a heck of a morning.
Hope those anchors are holding up top.
Even with the best gear, this
is gonna be a real struggle.
My body's frozen stiff.
(grunts)
It didn't feel this deep
when we were coming in.
Just want to get out and get moving,
get the blood flowing in my fingers again.
My fingers and my arms and
my legs are about to fall off. (grunts)
Five meters, might as well be five miles.
(heavy breathing)
Every time I close my hand,
it doesn't want to open again. (groans)
We've got time to make up.
We have to keep moving.
We've got five days left.
I'm still in the middle of this glacier,
surrounded by crevasses.
I need to make it to the
side for some solid ground
and to find that hut
to shelter from the elements.
That storm really dumped on us last night.
Now it's hard to tell what I'm walking on.
-And after that close call yesterday…
-I've decided to rope me and Rob up.
(tense music)
We're in a glacier,
crevasses all over the place.
It's the safest thing to do.
We're roping together for safety.
It's where you tether
two or more people together,
so if one of us falls
into a hidden crevasse,
the other will hopefully catch them.
(grunts) Every time I sink,
I feel like it's another crevasse.
It's so draining. I don't think
seven days is enough.
(rumbling)
You hear that?
Could be the glacier cracking, moving.
Could even be an avalanche
somewhere else, along these peaks.
Avalanches are most likely to
happen right after a snowstorm.
New snow load can make it all give way.
And earthquakes are really common
in the Tien Shan Mountains,
which can lead to
catastrophically big avalanches.
They can move as fast
as 100 miles an hour.
I do not want to be out here exposed.
Now, there should be a hut
around here somewhere.
Soon as the sun goes down,
temperature goes with it.
We don't want to get caught in that.
If we don't find the hut,
we don't have many options.
We might have to dig a snow cave.
Getting out of this wind is essential.
We've been walking for four hours.
Where is this hut?
Thing is, could be covered
in snow for all we know.
Rob, there's the hut!
There's the hut, and it's still standing!
This means we're out
of the cold tonight. (laughs) Mate!
(grand music)
You can see why it's so hard to spot.
This metal structure
in the middle of nowhere.
I'm so happy to see it.
I just hope it's in one piece.
I don't read Russian, and I don't know
what this is or how long it's been here.
Look at that. Frozen cognac.
For that to happen, it's got to
be at least 16 degrees below.
Frozen solid.
At least we're out of the wind.
(cabin rattles)
This thing feels like it's about to go.
I thought making it
to the North Pole made me,
I don't know, tough or resilient or
something, but this is something else.
My resilience exists because
I push through hard times.
I nearly lost my life,
and that was in the city.
I had a guy pull a gun on me
and pull the trigger twice.
Coming close to losing my
life made me re-evaluate.
There's so much more to
see and do before I die.
And I certainly don't plan on dying today.
Let's see how we're getting on.
My next challenge is a tricky
descent to get into the woods.
It should be more sheltered down
there, and I'll need to move quickly,
but the rock and ice makes
getting down really difficult.
(grunts)
Straight down that way.
We need to find a rocky ridge
just like this and track it.
That's where we're gonna find our out.
We're moving so slowly
because of the weather.
Some loose rocks here.
(crumbling)
-ROB: Good?
-DWAYNE: Yeah. Really loose.
Hold on.
(rumbling)
You hear that?
That stuff's unstable.
That's rocks sliding.
Let's go. Let's go.
Kyrgyzstan gets about 40
earthquakes a year.
It's prone to major landslides,
claiming around 15 lives annually.
This portion of the Tien Shan
Mountains is older than the Himalayas.
Tectonic activity, snow
cover, and steep terrain --
it's a trifecta for natural disaster.
(tense music)
This slope's about a 45-degree angle.
Super unstable. This whole
mountain's about to give.
(rumbling)
Look at that.
(crumbling)
All of this could go at any time.
(crumbling)
I don't want to go down there, but it's
the only way out. (grunts)
This is risky.
(dramatic music)
Hold on. Hold on. Stay back.
Look at that.
We need to get off this mountain.
This whole thing's waiting to go.
(crumbling)
Whoa, oh, oh. Slow going now.
I was part of that.
Let's go, make our way down. Get low.
Rocks!
Tell you what, I'll be glad
to get off this glacier.
Definitely feel that we're getting lower.
Can even see the tree line.
At least down among the trees, there'll be
firewood and some means to get shelter.
Animals seek protection here, too, even
the elusive and endangered snow leopard.
Their wide paws act as natural snowshoes,
allowing them to hunt in an area
of up to 400 square miles
as prey becomes more scarce in winter.
You can see now the terrain's
completely changed.
Dusty, rocky, dry.
A lot easier to travel through,
which means we can move faster,
make up time, and cover more ground.
(wind gusts)
Light's going.
(tense music)
What the hell is that?
It's a dead sheep. Yeah! Oh.
It's probably perfectly good meat.
I'm tired, I'm hungry.
I'm thinking we should eat some of this.
It's frozen.
It's like a natural freezer
out here. I'll use this.
It's a wire saw.
I normally use it for wood.
So I just want to cut off a chunk
of meat and just get out of here.
I'm so anxious 'cause
there's wolves and bear,
and snow leopards in these mountains.
Have to get right in here.
(grunts)
That's bone I'm going through.
Yeah. (winces)
Just take a few chunks. This is good fat.
Good bit of protein, keep our energy up.
Just take what we can carry,
leave the rest for nature.
(howl)
What was that?
(howl)
Let's get out of here.
(heavy breathing)
I think this is far enough.
(heartbeat)
Smells so strong.
Doesn't look that good, to be honest,
but it's gonna taste alright.
(hums) So chewy.
Isn't it amazing how much better you feel
when you've just got some hot food in you?
Feel like a new man
after eating something warm.
Three and a half hours
till sunrise. Let's carry on.
This is all south facing,
so it's getting lots of sun.
I'm getting a headache
from bright sunlight.
I hope I can cover some distance today.
I keep thinking the nomads will
be gone by the time I get there.
Hell of a lot of walking to go.
And those mountains in the distance,
they're just not getting any closer.
It'll be a good vantage point,
and I'm hoping to spot
one of those abandoned mining
settlements from up there.
And beyond that
is the nomad camp.
This just doesn't stop.
It looks like it goes on forever.
People always ask me,
"Why do you do this?"
It's hard to explain, but the
hardship, the pain, the fear,
forcing myself through it all,
that's why I do this.
Most of life's failures…
are people who give up without knowing
how close they were to success.
Success for me…
is at the foot of those mountains.
Just putting one foot
in front of the other.
And if I keep thinking that…
it's not so big.
Almost sounds like a motto for life.
That's it -- a relentless forward motion.
You learn best when things are tough.
I have no interest in stopping.
You learn what your limit isn't.
You realize "Actually, I've got
a bit more in the tank."
That's one of the most
important things you can learn.
One more mountain to go.
(heavy breathing)
We're not done for altitude.
I'm so tired.
Two and a half hours of climbing.
Must be near the top.
We're 10,000 feet up.
The air's really thin.
(gasps, continuous)
It's so hard to breathe. I'm feeling
dizzy and a little bit out of it.
Taking so many deep breaths.
Feels like there's no air coming in.
We climbed so fast, it could be
the onset of altitude sickness.
My head is banging.
I can't let this get any worse.
(weird music)
Holy crap!
We've got miles to go.
I reckon the mining
settlement's down there.
We've got to get lower,
got to walk through the night.
It feels good to get
my head out of the clouds
and my boots back on solid ground.
Getting much lower.
A lot easier to breathe.
The soil here is rich in gold, iron
ore, and even uranium deposits.
Once, this area was
booming with mining towns,
but when the Soviet Union collapsed,
so did much of that industry,
leaving behind abandoned
mines and settlements.
I'm trying to find somewhere we
can set up camp for the night.
Progress. Ah! These…
trees.
Light's going.
What I'm looking for
is some proper shelter.
Keep that mountain range to my left,
and the village will be dead center.
(tense music)
It's getting dark quick.
Can't be too much further.
Starting to think getting to this village
isn't gonna be as easy as I thought.
I can't see the mountain range
I'm walking towards now,
and I've been walking towards it
for the past two hours.
Ah, the bloody light's gone.
This cold is killing the batteries.
I need some proper light to check this
out. I'm gonna fire up a hand flare.
They're structures.
Yeah, this is it. It'll be a
lifesaver to have some heat.
We'll set up in here.
This is good, this is
well-sheltered on all sides.
Flat enough.
Set up a fire over there.
Good thing about being here, everything's
basically freeze-dried already.
This is brilliant tinder.
This doesn't happen
in many places in the world,
but with the altitude and dry, cold wind,
the ice is actually vaporizing
directly off the wood.
It's bone-dry. That's gonna go up nicely.
There we go.
And it's been a long few days,
so resting tonight is so important.
This place is creepy. Rubble everywhere.
Ground is freezing cold. Doesn't help
that I'm sleeping on a brick or a stone.
It's hard, and it's not comfortable.
This takes me back to the time
where I was living in London, and…
It's a time where I was homeless.
I got kicked out of home. I was in
my early twenties, had no money,
and pride meant I didn't tell anyone.
I didn't tell anyone that I was homeless.
I didn't have anyone I felt I could go to.
I'd spend the nights walking from
North London to South London,
and then back again,
and then if I did that for the night,
it meant I wouldn't have to sleep.
I didn't want to sleep because
I knew if I fell asleep,
there was always the risk of being
robbed or beaten up or worse.
I survived that, I know I can
survive another night out here.
It's so early. Got to make
it to that nomad camp.
Hopefully the cold hasn't pushed them all
out yet, but we're gonna try anyway.
Tough it out and see what happens.
The nomads graze their sheep
and horses on the high plains.
Their camp should be
around here somewhere,
but in the brutal winters,
conditions get so harsh,
they take their animals
down to the lower villages.
All of these are animal tracks, horses,
cattle, which could be a good sign.
Probably the nomads.
The tracks couldn't be more than
a day or two, maybe three old.
(heavy breaths)
It's the settlement!
There's buildings!
That's the settlement.
This is it.
Hello?
Come on!
Hello?
Oh, my God. There's no one here.
Hello?
Come on! They've gone. Come on. Hello?
(tense music)
We've missed them.
It's a soul-destroying moment,
to find the settlement only
to have missed the last nomads.
(groans)
It's absolutely gutting.
I can't help but feel I've let myself
down, but also my cameraman.
(dramatic music)
If there's one thing I've
learned in life, it's never give up.
It's incredible to think that people
survive up here for months on end.
And I'm digging into that thought
to push just a little bit further.
(exhales) I'm so tired now.
For the nomads, everyday survival is a
struggle, and it becomes their norm.
They're out there, they're against
the elements all the time,
and they just get on with it.
And I like to think I'm a "just
get on with it" kind of guy.
There's more buildings over there.
(heavy breathing)
Let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's go! It's been there!
It's over that way.
I can't --
(coughs)
I can see the smoke! There's a van!
There's a bloke! (yells) Hey!
Hey!
Hey! Hey!
He's packing the van.
He was about to leave.
An hour later, and he wouldn't
have been here. Hey!
Bishkek! Bishkek!
(breathlessly chuckles)
We're going to Bishkek, yeah?
(groans happily, catches breath)
Yeah, we get in? Yeah?
We get in here?
I just, I need to sit down.
(grunts)
(laughs breathlessly)
Yeah, Bishkek. (laughs)
I knew it was gonna be hard, but
I didn't think it would be that tough.
My hands, I can't feel them.
Can't feel my feet, my nostrils. My face
is just in agony. Just give me a minute.
I feel very lucky,
and I don't know what would have happened.
We'd have had to wait for rescue,
or we'd have to keep walking.
Truth be told, I don't think
I had much left in the tank.
To survive seven days here,
when even the locals are leaving,
that's an accomplishment.
Walls of ice, sub-zero
temperatures, whiteouts,
the earth literally shattering around me,
and yet I feel at home in all this chaos.
It's not like London,
where I've had to fight for my life on the
streets because of other people's malice.
(grand music)
Here, nature at its most extreme
simply tests your resilience,
to reveal who you really are. Kyrgyzstan
did just that in its own wild way.
I think part of the fun of life,
not just adventure, but life,
is that you don't know
what's gonna happen.
And that's what adds a little
bit of sparkle into living.
---
(wind gusting)
(unsettling music)
(labored breathing)
DWAYNE:
Nice and slow. That's it.
My hands are nearly frozen.
Everything's ice. (grunts)
I've been dropped in Kyrgyzstan,
one of the highest countries in the world,
94 percent of it mountains,
some over 20,000 feet.
9,000 feet above sea level,
I'm hanging off a frozen waterfall
trying to get onto a glacier.
(crunching, cracking)
Some snow coming down.
It's all soft snow. Yeah,
it could come down.
(Rob grunts)
DWAYNE: Easy.
-You alright?
-ROB: Yeah.
DWAYNE: This terrain is so tough,
you've got to go at it as a team.
-Good.
-My cameraman is my lifeline, and I'm his.
Dig in with your crampons.
(heavy breathing, continuous)
I'm challenging myself for one week
in the glacial peaks of Kyrgyzstan.
(dramatic music)
(groans)
Just lost half my traction.
It's not looking good.
(tense music)
(theme music)
I'm Dwayne Fields,
explorer and adventurer.
(whoops)
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!
-In the wilderness is where I come alive.
-Ooh, viper!
-It's my true calling.
-Whoa!
In 2010, I became the first Black
British man to trek to the North Pole.
Progress is that way.
I love to push myself to the limit.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, that's a drop!
Now I'm challenging myself
to survive a week
in some of the harshest
environments on Earth…
Oh, man, this is gonna be intense.
…using all my skill,
determination, and will to survive.
-That's why I'm here in Kyrgyzstan…
-Here we go.
…in the dead of winter.
This is gonna be my Seven Toughest Days.
(climactic music)
(wind whistles)
This is so much harder with one crampon.
(huffs) I'm not getting any grip!
Just not getting any grip.
I can see the crampon. Fat lot of
good it's doing me down there.
Ah, mercifully a little bit
of rock will give me some grip.
We need to get off this mountain.
We've got a long way to go.
(dramatic music)
Kyrgyzstan lies to the south of
Kazakhstan and west of China.
I'm in the Tien Shan Mountains,
the largest range in Central Asia.
I've got just seven days to get to a nomad
camp where I've arranged a ride out
before they all leave.
Kyrgyzstan is one of the
coldest countries on Earth.
The average temperature is 37 degrees.
Four percent of the country lies under
permanent snow and glaciers.
I'm here in the dead of winter.
The weather gets so extreme, even
the local nomad population gets out,
and heads for more sheltered ground.
We're now on the glacier,
a massive unstable sea of ice
riddled with deep, treacherous crevasses.
I know there's a mountain hut around here.
If I can find it, I can shelter
in there out of the elements.
Then I'm going to climb
a 10,000-foot peak,
search for an abandoned mining settlement
before hitching a ride back to safety,
all in seven days.
This glacier is scarred with
crevasses. It's so treacherous.
This is only a small one, but they can
get big enough to swallow a house.
And that's what makes them
dangerous, the snow covers them.
If you survive a fall in, rescue is
really difficult. They are deadly.
So keep a lookout.
I'm going to try heading over
to this side at the talus field.
All this rock debris at the side of
the glacier should be frozen solid.
(heavy breathing, grunting)
The snow is covering all the hazards.
This is hell.
Any step could be a twisted ankle,
which doesn't sound like much,
but out here, that's a big deal.
If I go down, I don't know how long it
could take for rescue to reach me.
(grunts)
The snow covers so much, look at that.
It's so deep, you can't
ever find a decent footing.
You just don't know
what you're stepping into.
As a polar explorer, I know this
type of environment and its risks.
I'm comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Kyrgyzstan is my kind of world.
It's extreme and inspiring.
There are more than 100
unclimbed peaks here.
Nature's chaos is just what it is.
You don't know what's gonna
happen in ten minutes' time,
and I think that's what makes life
worth living. The risk is part of the fun.
With the wind coming in…
(tense music)
…we need to get
off this mountain ASAP.
I feel the temperature dropping
because of the windchill factor now.
See, that to me looks like a storm.
Do you see how fast they come in?
The visibility is just going to zero.
We've got that cloud coming in.
We don't want to get caught in that.
I'm hopeful that maybe on the other side,
we'll get some dry glaciers so we can
walk on, make life a little bit easier.
Get us out of here that much quicker.
(heavy breathing)
(wind gusting)
Whoa, this wind's nuts. I've gone 20
yards further, and it's clear again.
I'm concerned because
there's a crack along there,
and I don't know when it widens or not.
I'm gonna have to change these crampons.
Whoa, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!
A massive crevasse along here. Step back.
(dramatic music)
Come back. Step back.
That's like a 100-foot drop.
I don't know if we're
overhanging. Step back.
The snow underfoot could just give way.
Look at that. You can't even see
the mountains up there anymore.
In a few minutes,
we're gonna be overwhelmed.
If we stay up here,
we might freeze to death.
Down there, it's out of the wind
and a few degrees warmer.
But the ice could be unstable.
It might collapse, burying us.
Visibility's gonna drop to zero.
That's where we're sleeping tonight.
We need to get the ropes
rigged and get down in there
where it's gonna be a lot
safer than it is up here.
We're less exposed down there.
We haven't got any time. Let's get moving.
(action music)
Looking for a really good flat spot.
No bubbles, no clear cracks,
and I'll use one of these ice screws.
This is what I'm gonna trust our lives on.
(grunts)
It's designed to hold
2,200 pounds of force.
The wind's picking up.
I've done a lot of rope work on my
expeditions, but I'm not gonna lie,
I'm feeling a bit scared at this point.
A crevasse is the kind of thing you could
fall down into and nobody will ever know.
(grunts)
(adventurous music)
It's good to get out of that storm.
(otherworldly music)
(heavy breathing)
It feels like another world down here.
It's like 10 to 15 stories deep.
It's wild to think this crevasse was
formed because the ice is moving.
Deep below me, the glacier is crawling
along at probably a foot and a half a day.
But different parts of the glacier
are moving at different speeds,
stressing the ice.
These huge forces cause the ice to crack
open, forming massive gaps, like canyons.
Hopefully, it'll open up. I think this
is where we're gonna be sleeping.
(yells) It's pitch-black in here!
(wind howls)
Do you know, as nice as it is to
get out of that weather up top,
it's bittersweet. We're losing
half a day sat down here.
We're not gonna get out of
here before morning, at best.
At least we've got plenty of water.
This takes me back to cold
weather survival training
high up in the mountains.
Sitting down on a freezing cold
sub-zero, minus-20 night just like this,
trying to stave off
frostbite and hypothermia.
I can hear the ice shifting.
I hope that doesn't cause a collapse.
I gave myself seven days for this.
Sitting here on a freezing
cold night like this,
it's just come to mind
that it's seven nights as well.
(dramatic music)
(otherworldly music)
Storm's passed. Got to get
out of here, find that hut.
And also, we need to warm up.
(grunts)
(chuckles) I tell you what,
I've slept in better places.
Okay. Ah, oh, my fingers are freezing.
(dramatic music)
It's gonna be a heck of a morning.
Hope those anchors are holding up top.
Even with the best gear, this
is gonna be a real struggle.
My body's frozen stiff.
(grunts)
It didn't feel this deep
when we were coming in.
Just want to get out and get moving,
get the blood flowing in my fingers again.
My fingers and my arms and
my legs are about to fall off. (grunts)
Five meters, might as well be five miles.
(heavy breathing)
Every time I close my hand,
it doesn't want to open again. (groans)
We've got time to make up.
We have to keep moving.
We've got five days left.
I'm still in the middle of this glacier,
surrounded by crevasses.
I need to make it to the
side for some solid ground
and to find that hut
to shelter from the elements.
That storm really dumped on us last night.
Now it's hard to tell what I'm walking on.
-And after that close call yesterday…
-I've decided to rope me and Rob up.
(tense music)
We're in a glacier,
crevasses all over the place.
It's the safest thing to do.
We're roping together for safety.
It's where you tether
two or more people together,
so if one of us falls
into a hidden crevasse,
the other will hopefully catch them.
(grunts) Every time I sink,
I feel like it's another crevasse.
It's so draining. I don't think
seven days is enough.
(rumbling)
You hear that?
Could be the glacier cracking, moving.
Could even be an avalanche
somewhere else, along these peaks.
Avalanches are most likely to
happen right after a snowstorm.
New snow load can make it all give way.
And earthquakes are really common
in the Tien Shan Mountains,
which can lead to
catastrophically big avalanches.
They can move as fast
as 100 miles an hour.
I do not want to be out here exposed.
Now, there should be a hut
around here somewhere.
Soon as the sun goes down,
temperature goes with it.
We don't want to get caught in that.
If we don't find the hut,
we don't have many options.
We might have to dig a snow cave.
Getting out of this wind is essential.
We've been walking for four hours.
Where is this hut?
Thing is, could be covered
in snow for all we know.
Rob, there's the hut!
There's the hut, and it's still standing!
This means we're out
of the cold tonight. (laughs) Mate!
(grand music)
You can see why it's so hard to spot.
This metal structure
in the middle of nowhere.
I'm so happy to see it.
I just hope it's in one piece.
I don't read Russian, and I don't know
what this is or how long it's been here.
Look at that. Frozen cognac.
For that to happen, it's got to
be at least 16 degrees below.
Frozen solid.
At least we're out of the wind.
(cabin rattles)
This thing feels like it's about to go.
I thought making it
to the North Pole made me,
I don't know, tough or resilient or
something, but this is something else.
My resilience exists because
I push through hard times.
I nearly lost my life,
and that was in the city.
I had a guy pull a gun on me
and pull the trigger twice.
Coming close to losing my
life made me re-evaluate.
There's so much more to
see and do before I die.
And I certainly don't plan on dying today.
Let's see how we're getting on.
My next challenge is a tricky
descent to get into the woods.
It should be more sheltered down
there, and I'll need to move quickly,
but the rock and ice makes
getting down really difficult.
(grunts)
Straight down that way.
We need to find a rocky ridge
just like this and track it.
That's where we're gonna find our out.
We're moving so slowly
because of the weather.
Some loose rocks here.
(crumbling)
-ROB: Good?
-DWAYNE: Yeah. Really loose.
Hold on.
(rumbling)
You hear that?
That stuff's unstable.
That's rocks sliding.
Let's go. Let's go.
Kyrgyzstan gets about 40
earthquakes a year.
It's prone to major landslides,
claiming around 15 lives annually.
This portion of the Tien Shan
Mountains is older than the Himalayas.
Tectonic activity, snow
cover, and steep terrain --
it's a trifecta for natural disaster.
(tense music)
This slope's about a 45-degree angle.
Super unstable. This whole
mountain's about to give.
(rumbling)
Look at that.
(crumbling)
All of this could go at any time.
(crumbling)
I don't want to go down there, but it's
the only way out. (grunts)
This is risky.
(dramatic music)
Hold on. Hold on. Stay back.
Look at that.
We need to get off this mountain.
This whole thing's waiting to go.
(crumbling)
Whoa, oh, oh. Slow going now.
I was part of that.
Let's go, make our way down. Get low.
Rocks!
Tell you what, I'll be glad
to get off this glacier.
Definitely feel that we're getting lower.
Can even see the tree line.
At least down among the trees, there'll be
firewood and some means to get shelter.
Animals seek protection here, too, even
the elusive and endangered snow leopard.
Their wide paws act as natural snowshoes,
allowing them to hunt in an area
of up to 400 square miles
as prey becomes more scarce in winter.
You can see now the terrain's
completely changed.
Dusty, rocky, dry.
A lot easier to travel through,
which means we can move faster,
make up time, and cover more ground.
(wind gusts)
Light's going.
(tense music)
What the hell is that?
It's a dead sheep. Yeah! Oh.
It's probably perfectly good meat.
I'm tired, I'm hungry.
I'm thinking we should eat some of this.
It's frozen.
It's like a natural freezer
out here. I'll use this.
It's a wire saw.
I normally use it for wood.
So I just want to cut off a chunk
of meat and just get out of here.
I'm so anxious 'cause
there's wolves and bear,
and snow leopards in these mountains.
Have to get right in here.
(grunts)
That's bone I'm going through.
Yeah. (winces)
Just take a few chunks. This is good fat.
Good bit of protein, keep our energy up.
Just take what we can carry,
leave the rest for nature.
(howl)
What was that?
(howl)
Let's get out of here.
(heavy breathing)
I think this is far enough.
(heartbeat)
Smells so strong.
Doesn't look that good, to be honest,
but it's gonna taste alright.
(hums) So chewy.
Isn't it amazing how much better you feel
when you've just got some hot food in you?
Feel like a new man
after eating something warm.
Three and a half hours
till sunrise. Let's carry on.
This is all south facing,
so it's getting lots of sun.
I'm getting a headache
from bright sunlight.
I hope I can cover some distance today.
I keep thinking the nomads will
be gone by the time I get there.
Hell of a lot of walking to go.
And those mountains in the distance,
they're just not getting any closer.
It'll be a good vantage point,
and I'm hoping to spot
one of those abandoned mining
settlements from up there.
And beyond that
is the nomad camp.
This just doesn't stop.
It looks like it goes on forever.
People always ask me,
"Why do you do this?"
It's hard to explain, but the
hardship, the pain, the fear,
forcing myself through it all,
that's why I do this.
Most of life's failures…
are people who give up without knowing
how close they were to success.
Success for me…
is at the foot of those mountains.
Just putting one foot
in front of the other.
And if I keep thinking that…
it's not so big.
Almost sounds like a motto for life.
That's it -- a relentless forward motion.
You learn best when things are tough.
I have no interest in stopping.
You learn what your limit isn't.
You realize "Actually, I've got
a bit more in the tank."
That's one of the most
important things you can learn.
One more mountain to go.
(heavy breathing)
We're not done for altitude.
I'm so tired.
Two and a half hours of climbing.
Must be near the top.
We're 10,000 feet up.
The air's really thin.
(gasps, continuous)
It's so hard to breathe. I'm feeling
dizzy and a little bit out of it.
Taking so many deep breaths.
Feels like there's no air coming in.
We climbed so fast, it could be
the onset of altitude sickness.
My head is banging.
I can't let this get any worse.
(weird music)
Holy crap!
We've got miles to go.
I reckon the mining
settlement's down there.
We've got to get lower,
got to walk through the night.
It feels good to get
my head out of the clouds
and my boots back on solid ground.
Getting much lower.
A lot easier to breathe.
The soil here is rich in gold, iron
ore, and even uranium deposits.
Once, this area was
booming with mining towns,
but when the Soviet Union collapsed,
so did much of that industry,
leaving behind abandoned
mines and settlements.
I'm trying to find somewhere we
can set up camp for the night.
Progress. Ah! These…
trees.
Light's going.
What I'm looking for
is some proper shelter.
Keep that mountain range to my left,
and the village will be dead center.
(tense music)
It's getting dark quick.
Can't be too much further.
Starting to think getting to this village
isn't gonna be as easy as I thought.
I can't see the mountain range
I'm walking towards now,
and I've been walking towards it
for the past two hours.
Ah, the bloody light's gone.
This cold is killing the batteries.
I need some proper light to check this
out. I'm gonna fire up a hand flare.
They're structures.
Yeah, this is it. It'll be a
lifesaver to have some heat.
We'll set up in here.
This is good, this is
well-sheltered on all sides.
Flat enough.
Set up a fire over there.
Good thing about being here, everything's
basically freeze-dried already.
This is brilliant tinder.
This doesn't happen
in many places in the world,
but with the altitude and dry, cold wind,
the ice is actually vaporizing
directly off the wood.
It's bone-dry. That's gonna go up nicely.
There we go.
And it's been a long few days,
so resting tonight is so important.
This place is creepy. Rubble everywhere.
Ground is freezing cold. Doesn't help
that I'm sleeping on a brick or a stone.
It's hard, and it's not comfortable.
This takes me back to the time
where I was living in London, and…
It's a time where I was homeless.
I got kicked out of home. I was in
my early twenties, had no money,
and pride meant I didn't tell anyone.
I didn't tell anyone that I was homeless.
I didn't have anyone I felt I could go to.
I'd spend the nights walking from
North London to South London,
and then back again,
and then if I did that for the night,
it meant I wouldn't have to sleep.
I didn't want to sleep because
I knew if I fell asleep,
there was always the risk of being
robbed or beaten up or worse.
I survived that, I know I can
survive another night out here.
It's so early. Got to make
it to that nomad camp.
Hopefully the cold hasn't pushed them all
out yet, but we're gonna try anyway.
Tough it out and see what happens.
The nomads graze their sheep
and horses on the high plains.
Their camp should be
around here somewhere,
but in the brutal winters,
conditions get so harsh,
they take their animals
down to the lower villages.
All of these are animal tracks, horses,
cattle, which could be a good sign.
Probably the nomads.
The tracks couldn't be more than
a day or two, maybe three old.
(heavy breaths)
It's the settlement!
There's buildings!
That's the settlement.
This is it.
Hello?
Come on!
Hello?
Oh, my God. There's no one here.
Hello?
Come on! They've gone. Come on. Hello?
(tense music)
We've missed them.
It's a soul-destroying moment,
to find the settlement only
to have missed the last nomads.
(groans)
It's absolutely gutting.
I can't help but feel I've let myself
down, but also my cameraman.
(dramatic music)
If there's one thing I've
learned in life, it's never give up.
It's incredible to think that people
survive up here for months on end.
And I'm digging into that thought
to push just a little bit further.
(exhales) I'm so tired now.
For the nomads, everyday survival is a
struggle, and it becomes their norm.
They're out there, they're against
the elements all the time,
and they just get on with it.
And I like to think I'm a "just
get on with it" kind of guy.
There's more buildings over there.
(heavy breathing)
Let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's go! It's been there!
It's over that way.
I can't --
(coughs)
I can see the smoke! There's a van!
There's a bloke! (yells) Hey!
Hey!
Hey! Hey!
He's packing the van.
He was about to leave.
An hour later, and he wouldn't
have been here. Hey!
Bishkek! Bishkek!
(breathlessly chuckles)
We're going to Bishkek, yeah?
(groans happily, catches breath)
Yeah, we get in? Yeah?
We get in here?
I just, I need to sit down.
(grunts)
(laughs breathlessly)
Yeah, Bishkek. (laughs)
I knew it was gonna be hard, but
I didn't think it would be that tough.
My hands, I can't feel them.
Can't feel my feet, my nostrils. My face
is just in agony. Just give me a minute.
I feel very lucky,
and I don't know what would have happened.
We'd have had to wait for rescue,
or we'd have to keep walking.
Truth be told, I don't think
I had much left in the tank.
To survive seven days here,
when even the locals are leaving,
that's an accomplishment.
Walls of ice, sub-zero
temperatures, whiteouts,
the earth literally shattering around me,
and yet I feel at home in all this chaos.
It's not like London,
where I've had to fight for my life on the
streets because of other people's malice.
(grand music)
Here, nature at its most extreme
simply tests your resilience,
to reveal who you really are. Kyrgyzstan
did just that in its own wild way.
I think part of the fun of life,
not just adventure, but life,
is that you don't know
what's gonna happen.
And that's what adds a little
bit of sparkle into living.